At the moment I'm reading another Scandi noir - a thriller by Henning Mankell. The plot has many twists and turns, and the reason behind the spate of killings is as puzzling to me as it is to Kurt Wallander.

But I'm only a third of the way through, and I know that by page 534 the murderer(s) will have been revealed. Riddle solved.

More mysterious, and unsolvable, is the picture postcard of 'The Reading Woman' by Henry Lerolle that acts as my bookmark. I received it when I lived in Inverness. So I've kept it for at least 5 years.

Within, is a newsy note to me from someone who knows me quite well apparently - mentions my birthday, my art and my writing.

How I've wished over the years that I could return a note of thanks. Strange thing is: I've no idea who it's from!

It's signed with one name - obviously a Christian name, but the script is flouncy and consists of up to 8 individual letters. It could start with D, L or C, but none of these relate to any of my friends. I just can't decipher the name - even by looking at other letters in the note. Yet it is from someone who knows me well, but someone I cannot piece together at all. It is, and will remain, unsolved.

One of Life's Little Mysteries (LLMs).

And then there are those LLMs that you know your Mam could have answered jack-flash, if only she was still alive and you'd thought of asking her years earlier. There must be loads of people with that empty void of unanswered questions.

Later in life, it seems important to trace a family tree - well, to me, at least! If only I'd asked my Great Granny about her Granny, I would have had info back to the 1700s (if my maths is right)! It's so important to ask pertinent questions sooner.

I remember when my children were little and we'd gone to a post-Xmas get-together with my ex-husband's family. All the kids zoomed around while most of the adults chatted and drank wine. In the car home, one of my bairns asked, 'Who were those kids?' I was somewhat bemused. 'Those are your cousins!' I answered. I made a mental note to try to meet up with them more than annually.

Two things spring to mind: (1) Adults sometimes don't know what children don't know; (2) If you need to know something, you must ask questions immediately.

These are easily solved little mysteries.

Then there's the LLMs that are self-imposed. Like not finding something that you've placed somewhere safe, as opposed to somewhere obvious.

For instance, I got my joiner to make some bespoke plate racks for my kitchen, to replace the little Ercol one. On it was a dinky vintage bright-pink jug. I cleared the said jug away before the joiner arrived. Because it is so delicate - made from almost see-through, shell-like china - I had first placed it on a shelf in the spare bedroom - only to doubt the efficacy of that. Maybe I'd knock it sideways into smithereens? So I placed it in bubblewrap and placed it somewhere safe. I've searched high and low to no avail. Nothing seems to jog my memory.

It still remains in that void of LLMs.

Of course the reverse of that is looking for something - usually extremely important - in the only place it can and should be, only to discover it's not there.

A rummage and a lot of swearing doesn't help one iota. Less obvious and, frankly, unlikely places are tried, but the item remains lost. Inexplicably, when the task is repeated a couple of days later, the item is located in the very first place of looking. Just how does that happen?

???

Discounting Deja Vu as intriguing, there are other weird things that are unexplainable. Like when I woke up from a long involved dream about being in a specific place, I immediately jotted down the placename, googled it, and found it was a tiny village in central India. News to me! What's that all about?

And then there's meeting a friend for coffee and finding you're colour co-ordinated in similar outfits. That's odd, but amusing!

Another of Life's Little Mysteries, no doubt.

One thing's for sure, Time is passing. Me & Hebe-the-dog have had another birthday. She is now 2 and I'm a lot older. That frenetic hyper pup is now keen to nap her way through the day while I have been doing spring diy, filling the logstore for winter, and tidying the garden. The daylight is longer and the studio beckons. But what will my inspiration be this time?

For the mo, another of Life's Little Mysteries!

ps If you sent me this a few years ago, please get back in touch : )